Authority Issues

By Rachel Perkins and Kendall Miller

Welcome to Authority Issues, a podcast about leadership, management, and competitive prescription writing.

Hosted by Rachel Perkins (aka piebob), and Kendall Miller... more

4.6

88 ratings

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FAQs about Authority Issues:

How many episodes does Authority Issues have?

The podcast currently has 100 episodes available.

Authority Issues episodes:

December 05, 2019Episode 40: Aimee Cardwell (recently of American Express)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Aimee talk about:
Dropping out of high school/not having a university degree
The major importance of learning to type early on
Loving the first taste of authority, building her own team
Learning that people don't want to talk to sales if they can shop online
Why the pop-up window is (technically) her fault :shaking-fist:
Experiencing classic sexism from Japanese executives
The fallout of the first dot com crash and taking a major step back careerwise
Trusting your friends to tell you if you're being an asshole
Learning how to frame recommendations for improvement without alienating people by telling them their baby is ugly
Checking intentions for and expectations from going into management
Recommendation for the book Performance Breakthrough by Cathy Rose Salit
What 'visibility' means, and why you don't need someone to tell you to get it
Authority's effect, and cultural differences in responses to it
Watching this talk every quarter for inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqmdLcyES_Q
How leaders should be the calmest person in the room and how meditation (including via cooking) has helped
Trying on "leader onesies" to help decide how to respond in various situations
You can reach Aimee on LinkedIn as "acardwell" and find her blog post about here:
https://americanexpress.io/visibility/
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
52min
November 21, 2019Episode 39: Linda Lannen (Kleinfelder)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Linda talk about:
Not having a career plan at 17, starting with community college
The value of getting an MBA, broadening of perspective
Looking for more 'worthy' occupations as one's career winds up
Stints at Oscar Meyer and Jolly Rancher, bad jokes about each :)
Moving toward technology via technical indexing and writing gigs
Stepping up to own a Lotus Notes install when the IT director quit
Working at Home Depot during the first dot-com bust
Thinking she was not technical enough to be a CIO
A day in the life of the CIO at a large corporation
How many people want to feel their work drives something worthwhile
The tendency of leaders to overlook reward vs discipline
Decompression via travel and time off
You can find Linda on LinkedIn as lindalannen :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
49min
November 07, 2019Episode 38: Unmesh Kurup (LG Electronics)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Unmesh talk about:
The role of luck and timing in one's career path
Avoiding the dot com bust by staying in grad school
Changing yourself vs expecting your team to change
How managing/directing/coaching employees coming from academia is different
Why turnover can be desirable (SUPER interesting!)
The downside of having an extremely good manager (also SUPER interesting!)
Concensus-building as a safety mechanism (thanks, Kendall ;) )
Being the youngest sibling and how that influenced his path
Not liking to be told what to do
Autonomous cars, coming sooner than at least I thought
How leadership has made Unmesh more decisive in his personal life
Meeting people via swing dancing
You can find Unmesh on LinkedIn as unmeshkurup :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
43min
October 25, 2019Episode 37: Ellen Mary Hickman (Turing School of Software & Design)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Ellen Mary talk about:
Group dynamics and being a younger sibling
Leadership in a classroom of 4th graders
Self care when there are no filters on what your students say and do
Moving into teaching reform work
The role of process and where it isn't enough
Being uncomfortable and why you had better get used to it
Identifying the "language of value" for your audience
Wearing many, MANY hats as a Senior Director
How managing and disciplining and firing teachers differs from other industries
Why an effective hiring process is crucial because of the above
How leadership in the classroom is different from just giving a lecture
Setting up a team to support addressing conflicts
How real leaders shouldn't need to 'wield' authority
You can find Ellen Mary on LinkedIn as emhickmann :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
49min
October 10, 2019Episode 36: April Underwood (#Angels)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and April talk about:
A path into tech via baseball card database management and gpa optimization scripts
Detouring around a chem-eng career and hard-hat avoidance
TECH SUPPORT SHENANIGANS and getting away from campus to make websites
Graduating into the cataclysm of the first dot-com bust and heading to Intel
Early failures in operational scaling leading to product management
Taking a side-trip to get an MBA and ending up at Google
The leadership value of having worn many hats (or hard-hats ;))
Advice for those wanting to get into product management
A first official management role at Twitter
The "academic" culture of Google vs the "business" culture of Twitter
How hiring experience translates to investment decisionmaking
Consideration of company culture in the context of investment
Taking risks in the interest of a better future
Missing the major growth experience at Slack
The mindblowing feeling of having your team be multipliers for achieving your goals
The responsibility you have to the people who are choosing to work for you
Hiking goals
You can find April on Twitter at @aunder :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
54min
September 26, 2019Episode 35: Tina Huang (Transposit)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Tina talk about:
Starting your own company to get a role in leadership :)
The fact that men are much more often picked/groomed for leadership within an org
(see https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2018)
What it's like to learn how to lead on the job
Getting cross-functional experience at startups
Another recommendation for "Radical Candor"
Where leadership comes from at Apple vs Google and how that affects outcomes
Unconscious bias in different promotion review processes
Why it might be a good thing that we can't quantify absolutely everything people enjoy
Bringing pragmatism into technical decisionmaking that can sometimes feel like religious arguments
The role of vulnerability in disagreements
Why women are often better at building concensus and planning for outcomes in business
Developing an appreciation for Italian wines after growing up on Napa/Sonoma wines
A recommendation for Blair Fox winery's Syrah
You can find Tina on Twitter as @kmonkeyjam and she might find you on LinkedIn :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
46min
September 12, 2019Episode 34: Mojtaba Hosseini (Nanometrics Seismic Monitoring Solutions)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Mojtaba talk about:
How to work the system: adjunct professorship, then at Samsung
Making friends and escaping the dungeon via forgery
Effectiveness vs butt-in-seat time, tactics for success
Noticing the missing component: people!
Kendall's understanding of what having a PhD means
A whole new world (of management theory and practice to study)
The need to adapt your leadership style
Managing healthy tensions
What servant leadership actually means
Whether people are actually kinder in Canada
Real Canadian Goals(tm)
The relief of living in the moment with small children
You can find Mojtaba on LinkedIn :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
49min
August 29, 2019Episode 33: Michael Lopp (Slack)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Michael talk about:
Naming things (and people) is hard
Getting into the Deep End early on
The dearth of formal training for managers
Lengthy tenures and what they imply
Key strengths of a leader, and knowing how you rate in each
What it's like to rely only on Slack to communicate at work
His "you're a wizard, Harry!" moment
Hating to tell people what to do, hating to have people tell you what to do
The real definition of managing up
Giving away your toys, the sign of growth in leadership
Writing methodologies, and a CHILDREN'S BOOK?!
How "gravelbiking" is apparently rad
Memory exercises
You can find Michael Lopp on the internet at http://randsinrepose.com and from thence all the news about twitter, upcoming books, and the like.
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
52min
August 15, 2019Episode 32: Lisa Smith (Spreedly)
In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Lisa talk about:
Not being librarian-y enough
A night job turning news into jpgs
Bleeding-edge social media experiments
Forays into leadership (and friendships!) via brunching with Women Who Code
The importance of good office snacks
A good experience with a Lara Hogan workshop
Practicing difficult interactions
Tips for managing through change
Improving one's game face
How authority requires responsiveness
The magic of recontextualizing failure
You can find Lisa on the internet @lisadsmith on twitter
and on LinkedIn as /smithwebsmith :)
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
45min
August 01, 2019Episode 31: Elisa Hebert (Kenzan)
In this episode, rachel, Kendall, and Elisa talk about:
A fairytale-like pastry shop origin story ;)
Coming out and getting early experience of public speaking and leadership in a peer education program
Getting a job by insisting on it repeatedly (a tried and true approach!)
Being convinced to move into the for-profit world
Unveiling the inner project manager who was there all along
The recurring theme of accountability, and how not everyone feels it the way you do
What it means to have a strong bias for action and how to temper it
The benefits of 'showing the math'
Bringing one's authentic self to work
Further incidental evidence of the pay gap, :lolsob:
Tips for managing up, the most underrated superpower
Going deep, the hobby
Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music <3
...more
49min

FAQs about Authority Issues:

How many episodes does Authority Issues have?

The podcast currently has 100 episodes available.